Anderson Silva has received criticism after a video of him knocking out a training partner, and continuing to punch him during a sparring session at Team Nogueira gym went viral on Tuesday. However, Douglas Moura, who was sparring with “The Spider”, says Silva doesn’t deserve criticism.
Moura, a 5-1 welterweight, spoke to MMAFighting.com about the video, and clarified that he didn’t go out when Silva landed the left knee.
“I wasn’t out, I was just dizzy. I wasn’t out,” Moura said. “Right after that, I recovered, got back up and we continued training. Nothing happened. No big deal.”
According to Moura, the criticism should go to Globo, which edited the video of the sparring session.
“They didn’t do a good job with the editing. That’s not what happened,” Moura said. “We’re fighting, it happens, but when (Silva) realized I was dizzy, he didn’t punch for real. He was just touching his hand on me, giving me time to recover. There was 2:30 minutes left in the round, and we continued training after that, but they didn’t show that on TV. It happened to me, but it also happened to him before. It’s completely normal”
“The way they edited, looked like he was trying to hurt me,” he continued. “That’s not what happened. During the other part of the training, they said Wendres ‘Godzilla’ (da Silva) gave up during his sparring session with Anderson, but that’s not true. The round simply ended and he was resting. Globo did a poor job with the editing.”
Moura has no hard feelings towards the former UFC middleweight champion. In fact, Moura feels honored to be part of another training camp of the UFC star, who gets back inside the Octagon on Jan. 31 against Nick Diaz.
“This is not the first time I’m part of Anderson’s training camp. He always helped me a lot,” Moura said. “He’s not only a teammate, but he’s also a friend. He always helped me, gave me good advice. He’s a great athlete and a great person.”